Musalia party threatens to sue Raila in row over Nasa cash

Ayub Savula

ANC deputy leader Ayub Savula.

Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group

Musalia Mudavadi’s Amani National Congress (ANC) on Fridayy threatened to sue ODM as the fight for political parties cash in Nasa escalates.

ANC deputy party leader Ayub Savula said the formula that the Orange party is using to share funds with the other parties is not the one that was included in the Nasa agreement and deposited with the Registrar of Political Parties.

While addressing the press in Eldoret, the Lugari MP said they are planning to move to court to seek orders to suspend the use of the funds until an agreement is reached. He added that ODM was not doing any favour to the Nasa affiliates as claimed by Mr Odinga.

“We deserve an equal share of the political parties’ money and at the moment, the ANC secretariat is counter-checking the formula ODM has used and what is in the agreement. We are ready to move to court and block the usage of the funds until the right formula is applied,” said the MP.

Mr Savula asked ODM to provide their financial statements for Nasa affiliates to confirm the amount received.

“This is not ODM money. It is public funds and ODM should not threaten us. It is our right to get funds as per the agreement and we will not beg ODM. You will not run away from the responsibility of being accountable in the distribution of the funds,” he said.

ODM had agreed to release Sh153 million to its Nasa affiliates, which will be shared among ANC, Wiper, Ford Kenya and Chama Cha Mashinani (CCM).

Of the Sh153 million, Wiper will get Sh70.4 million, ANC Sh43.8 million, Ford-Kenya Sh36.04 million and CCM Sh3.08 million. CCM has since joined Deputy President William Ruto’s camp.

ODM secretary-general Edwin Sifuna had explained that the formula is based on the strength of each party through MPs. ODM controls 61 per cent of the coalition, Wiper 18 per cent, ANC 11 per cent, Ford-Kenya 9 per cent and CCM 1 per cent.

“You take the portion of the money attributable to the votes our MPs received. You leave out the governor, MCA and President. That’s two-thirds of the total amount. Then you take the numbers of MPs from each party and come up with the percentage contribution of each party to the strength of the coalition in Parliament,” said Mr Sifuna.

Boycotted election

In the agreement deposited with registrar’s office, the four partners were to benefit equally from the funding attributed to the presidential candidate. But a decision by the registrar to exclude the August 8, 2017 election results, which were nullified by the Supreme Court and only use the October 26, 2017 repeat poll, which Nasa boycotted, meant the only funds ODM received were from its show in parliamentary and gubernatorial races.

Mr Sifuna, who insisted that the parliamentary vote clause was only applicable in case of a joint nomination, said they were only sharing the funds “for the sake of peace”.